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Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom

BBC Books

Ch. 1 of 8
— CH. 1 · THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY —

Contents

BBC Books

8 sections

  • BBC Books turned down The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book that has since sold over 14,000,000 copies worldwide. The rejection happened in the years when the imprint still traded as BBC Publishing. It sits oddly beside the imprint's later reputation as the place where familiar television worlds become books. So who owns BBC Books today, and what does it publish apart from tie-ins? How did Doctor Who end up on its fiction list, and what did a detective drama bring to the shelves in 2011?

  • Over the years the imprint has carried three names: BBC Consumer Publishing, BBC Publishing, and finally BBC Books. It has been active since the 1980s. In 2006, the Ebury Publishing division of Random House acquired a majority shareholding. Today the imprint is majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House, again through Ebury. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. That split of ownership shapes a list built around radio and television programming, and the best-known names on it are not novelists.

  • Delia Smith, a former TV cook, is behind some of the best-known cookery books the imprint has issued. Sir David Attenborough supplies wildlife titles, and Alan Titchmarsh supplies gardening ones. The wider list covers cookery, natural history and lifestyle, along with behind-the-scenes making-of books about programmes. A few biographies and autobiographies of well-known personalities also appear, and these are not tied to any programme. Alongside those shelves, a very different line began in 1996 with the novelisation of a television film.

  • In the spring of 1996, BBC Books published a novelisation of the Doctor Who telemovie, its first release connected to the series. Doctor Who is the only full-length fiction the company prints. In 1997 the imprint launched two concurrent series. The Eighth Doctor Adventures followed the then-current incarnation of the Doctor. The Past Doctor Adventures featured the seven earlier incarnations. Between 1997 and 2005, about 150 original novels appeared across the two lines combined. A short-lived line of short story collections, called Short Trips, also appeared. Big Finish Productions later obtained the rights to those collections, and the series was still running as of 2010. Then, in 2005, the television series itself returned.

  • When the revived television series arrived in 2005, BBC Books began phasing out its older lines. It launched a new run informally called the New Series Adventures, featuring the Ninth Doctor. These books were hardbacks, whereas the Eighth Doctor, Past Doctor and Short Trips lines had all been paperback only. The Eighth Doctor line was discontinued in the summer of 2005, and the final Past Doctor Adventure followed in November. From 2006 the New Series Adventures featured the Tenth Doctor. As of September 2009 there was no word on any further Past Doctor Adventures. Four novellas broke the hardback pattern: I Am a Dalek, Made of Steel, Revenge of the Judoon and Code of the Krillitanes. They were paperbacks under a series called Quick Reads. The fourth still starred David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, even though the Eleventh Doctor had already appeared on television. The Doctor's world soon spawned books for a darker spin-off.

  • In January 2007, BBC Books launched original novels based on Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off. Like the television series, they were aimed at an older audience. They were published exclusively in hardcover. In 2010 came a different spin-off, a series of three novels based on the BBC Three drama Being Human. They follow the three main characters, Annie Sawyer, George Sands and John Mitchell. Simon Guerrier, Mark Michalowski and James Goss wrote the books. All three novels were also released as audiobooks, and the readers were drawn from the cast of the show.

  • In May 2008, BBC Books issued its first original made-for-audio Doctor Who adventure, Pest Control. It came out as part of the Tenth Doctor Adventures line and was read by David Tennant. Two years later, another Tenth Doctor adventure, Dead Air by James Goss, was named Audiobook of the Year 2010. Tennant read that one too. The Being Human audiobooks gave each of the three novels its own reader. Lenora Crichlow read The Road, Russell Tovey read Chasers, and Lucy Gaskell read Bad Blood. The next programme to receive a dedicated publishing programme was a BAFTA-winning detective series, launched in 2011.

  • In 2011, BBC Books launched a publishing programme around Sherlock, the BAFTA-winning series inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes. Each title carried the show's branding and an introduction by a key member of the Sherlock team. Co-founders Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were among them. The first title, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock: A Study in Scarlet, appeared on the 15th of September 2011 with an introduction by Moffat. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes followed on the 27th of October 2011, introduced by Gatiss. Three more books arrived on the 29th of March 2012: Sign of Four, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Their introductions were written by Martin Freeman, Steve Thompson and Benedict Cumberbatch. In autumn 2012, BBC Books published Sherlock: The Casebook, a hardback gift guide revisiting every mystery the television series had solved.

Updated

Common questions

Who owns BBC Books?

BBC Books is majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

When did Ebury take a majority stake in BBC Books?

In 2006, the Ebury Publishing division of Random House acquired a majority shareholding in BBC Books. The imprint has been active since the 1980s.

What kinds of books does BBC Books publish?

BBC Books publishes titles connected to BBC radio and television programming, including cookery, natural history, lifestyle and behind-the-scenes making-of books. Its list also includes some biographies and autobiographies unrelated to programmes.

Which book did BBC Books turn down?

In its BBC Publishing days, the imprint turned down The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book has since sold over 14,000,000 copies worldwide.

When did BBC Books start publishing Doctor Who novels?

BBC Books has published Doctor Who tie-in novels since 1996, beginning with a novelisation of the 1996 telemovie in the spring of that year. In 1997 it launched the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the Past Doctor Adventures.

What was the first made-for-audio Doctor Who adventure from BBC Books?

Pest Control, issued in May 2008, was the first original made-for-audio Doctor Who adventure from BBC Books. It was part of the Tenth Doctor Adventures line and was read by David Tennant.

When did BBC Books release its first Sherlock title?

BBC Books released Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock: A Study in Scarlet on the 15th of September 2011. It carried an introduction by Steven Moffat.

All sources

10 references cited across the entry

  1. 1BookHitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas AdamsM. J. Simpson — Justin Charles & Co. — 2003
  2. 2Joanne Black (2011): Read all about it – the books. In: Joanne Black: A guide to being human series 1-3. Cambridge: Classic TV Press. P.432-433
  3. 3BBC Books Publishing a Three-Novel Tie-In to Being HumanDebi Moore — Dreadcentral.com — 7 January 2010
  4. 4The Random House Group acquires majority shareholding in BBC Books BBC Press Office. 22 June 2006
  5. 5BBC Books to develop series around TV's Sherlock | The Bookseller
  6. 6"Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock: A Study in Scarlett
  7. 7"Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  8. 8"Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock: Sign of Four
  9. 9"Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
  10. 10"Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock: The Hound of the Baskervilles

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